According to Baha’i teachings, religious history is seen as an ongoing educational process for mankind, through God’s messengers or divine educators. Baha’ Allah is seen as the most recent, but not the last of these, prophesied in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other religions. Due to the oneness of the entire human race, he attempted to reconcile the monotheistic religions in one new faith and establish worldwide lasting peace. There are some 6 million Baha’i’s worldwide, and the central Baha’i scriptures, Kitab-i-Aqdas and Kitab-i-Iqan, are translated into 800 languages.
The famous text about Saladin’s re-conquest of Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1193 is significant, as Abd al-Baha tried to assemble a reference library covering the wars between Christianity and Islam: Islam’s conquest of Syria, Turkey and Palestine, followed by Islam’s conquest of Egypt, North Africa, and Spain, then the Crusades, Saladin’s re-conquest of Palestine, Christianity’s re-conquest of Spain, and the Ottoman conquest of Eastern Europe, and its re-conquest. This reference library was assembled in Baha’i’s quest to establish a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind.

Colophon

“It (the book) was copied for his own use by ‘Abd al-Baha’ ibn Baha’ Allah Husain ‘Ali Nuri in his home town of Akka on the Palestinian coast over a period of numerous days, the last of which was 10 Muharran 1307 AH (Friday 6 September 1889 AD)”. He was the son of the founder of the Baha’i religion and its future leader. His father, Baha’ Allah, had proclaimed himself the universal Messiah, whose coming had been preached by Sayyid ‘Ali Muhammad Shirazi, known as the “Bab”.